The Apple of My Eye

Isla took a grave look at Nick and shrugged at her in frustration. "Although Sheryl appears fine recently, I know for sure that she is faking it because, up to now, Charles still held a place in her heart. And instead of moving on, she chooses to live in the past. If we cannot help her get over this quickly, then she will spend the rest of her life missing and thinking miserably about Charles. She is worthy of someone better, and we must help her to forget him."

Caring about Sheryl, Isla also couldn't help worrying too much. She knew how painful it was to miss someone that you knew would never come back. If Sheryl were to continue living her life like this, then she would seriously end up losing more. Isla vowed that she would never let that fate befall her best friend.

"Isla, you know what? I don't think that it is completely over between Sher and Charles. There is still a good chance that the two of them can get back together," Nick suddenly countered, cutting Isla off with an opposing view out of the blue, which surprised Isla a little bit.

"What do you mean?" Isla gave Nick a confused look as she stared at him, searching for answers. The way she saw it, their relationship was way beyond salvaging. And it disheartened her.

Nick and Cassie quickly exchanged a look. It was as if they had just reached an agreement before Nick told Isla about what had happened at the hospital.

After hearing from Nick about the incident at the hospital, Isla found herself immersed in all kinds of thoughts. She was more cynical than Nick in the way she looked at it, and she weighed the pros and cons. For her, the incident at the hospital would have only shown that Charles had not felt too kindly to Vicky, but it did not necessarily mean that he still had feelings for Sheryl.

"So what? If he really loves Sheryl, why would he divorce her in the first place? He has not visited her once after the divorce to see how she is doing, not even his two kids. Do you think that it is still not over between the two of them? I am sorry, but I do beg to differ." The more Isla thought about the whole thing that Charles had done to Sheryl, the angrier she got. She saw absolutely no way to salvage their relationship.

"Isla, I think that these things may not as bad as we think. Maybe we should just give Sher a little bit more time to let her work it out with Charles herself," Cassie simply suggested to Isla while studying her afte a moment of serious contemplation.

She had also weighed in, seeing that Isla just lowered her head, clearly trying to get her head around the situation around Sheryl.

Isla did not shoot back with a rebuttal after both Nick and Cassie had stated what they wanted to say, and there was nothing but dead silence among the three of them.

'Are they actually right about Charles and Sheryl? Am I being too stubborn and inflexible about this issue?'

Isla mused over herself as she had complicated feelings about this. Before she met with the two of them, Isla had already thought of a plan that she wanted to run by them first about how to help Sheryl in moving on. However, under their influence, Isla now started to feel shaky about her initial plan and began to doubt herself whether she was right or wrong about their relationship.

"Isla, what matters the most in their relationship is their feelings towards each other, which is something you cannot force. So I think the best thing that we can do is to leave it to them. Let us not get ourselves involved in their affairs." Cassie observed that Isla grew silent all of a sudden. Then she immediately reached out and held her hand, offering some comforting. She feared Isla would harbor some hard feelings towards them as they disagreed with her plan.

"Fine. I will listen to you on this. You guys won, okay? Just leave me alone!" Hearing Cassie, Isla helplessly felt a little bit annoyed and agitated. She then grabbed her bag as she stood up hastily and left the cafe without another word, leaving Cassie and Nick still in their seats, looking dumbfounded.

Cassie could sense that Isla was a little upset, and she did not want to end their get-together in such an unhappy way. She was about to get up to stop her and to work things out, but Nick blocked her path. Nick shook his head at Cassie. "Do not go. Just give her some time to cool it down, and she will come around eventually. It is just a matter of time. Now, we can only hope that we are right about their relationship because otherwise, we could end up hurting Sher."

"I believe you. So let's see this thing through."

After ending their meeting at the cafe, Nick drove Cassie directly back to the hospital for her shift.

Soon after, Cassie learned that Vicky had already checked out of the hospital. She had no idea what had happened at the hospital. She had just returned from her two days off.

"How come that woman wanted to leave the hospital? I thought she enjoyed her life here," Cassie could not help but ask her colleagues about it as she was indeed intrigued by Vicky's sudden discharge. Actually, everyone in the hospital was aware that Vicky had recovered a long time ago. However, for some reason, Vicky had refused to check herself out until a couple of days ago.

"Who knows? She is quite strange. And more importantly, she is Charles's girlfriend. So she gets to come and go as per her wish, and there is absolutely nothing that we can do about it." Cassie's colleague turned to look at her, eyes brimming with jealousy. Clearly, she envied Vicky very much for having such an influential and wealthy boyfriend. Anyway, who wouldn't?

The way she perceived it, Vicky just got lucky as she did not see any good quality in her. But she could not understand why Charles liked her and chose her to be his girlfriend. He could have done way better than her!

Cassie knew that Charles was the one who had picked Vicky up from the hospital, so she could not help but sink into a deep contemplation whether she and Nick had made the right choice about the relationship between Charles and Sheryl.

She had earlier pointed out to both Nick and Isla that it was still not absolutely over between Charles and Sheryl. But based on this new piece of information, things were not going the way that she had anticipated.

If Charles already personally picked Vicky up and took her home, wasn't that supposed to mean something? Was it finished between Charles and Sheryl? She silently shook her head as she started mulling over these wild thoughts.

She was now worried sick about this turn of events. In no time, she fished her phone from her pocket and called Nick. She needed to unload this on him. Maybe he could help her figure this out. "What do you think that we should do about it?" Cassie asked Nick anxiously. She could no longer remain calm as she feared that she might hurt Sheryl because of her poor judgment.

"Calm down, Cassie. Listen to me, don't worry. Sher does not have to know about this. If we do not tell anyone about it, no one will find out." Nick, like Cassie, was also not comfortable hearing about the event between Charles and Vicky. He did not know how to console Cassie, but he could tell that something must be off about Charles and Vicky.

"I hope so, Nick. I don't want Sher to get hurt. Is it possible that what Isla said earlier is true, and Charles and Sheryl cannot get back together anymore?" Cassie now faltered with her opinion as she also knew that the best way for Sheryl to move on was to enter into a new relationship. She just felt that it would be such a shame that Charles and Sheryl could not be together anymore.

"Hey, Cassie, it's alright. Just stop overthinking. If it is really as bad as it seems, we can still stick to Isla's plan. Now, get busy with your work, and I must be off to my meeting. Let's discuss it some other time." Nick casually hung up the phone and headed for his meeting. He seemed bothered, but he chose not to dwell on it.

Cassie, on the other hand, was still holding her phone while she was deep in her thoughts. She was too engrossed, and she blanked out. She almost failed to notice her colleagues had been calling for her, which, finally, woke her up from her trance.

At Charles' villa at the downtown center, however, all was quiet and tranquil.

Vicky sneaked back into the villa. After hanging her coat on the hanger, she eased her way onto the couch. She seemed to be relaxed and even a little joyful. Stella appeared at this moment with a glass of mango juice in her hand.

"Ms. Yuan, the mango juice that you ordered." Stella approached Vicky with a big smile on her face. She poured a glace for Vicky and asked, "Did you go out for a walk?"

Vicky reached out for the mango juice. And as she leisurely took a sip of it, she snapped back as a sudden realization hit her when she heard Stella's question.

She was fully aware that Stella was not merely there to look after her, so she needed to be careful about her choice of words. After a quick calculation of the pros and cons, Vicky answered with a sweet smile, "Yes, I figured that I have just moved here, and I am not familiar yet with this place. So I took a quick tour of this place today. Is everything okay?"

"Oh, no. Just asking. Since you have just been discharged from the hospital, you should take sufficient rest." Stella restrained herself from saying too much for fear that it might tip Vicky off.

"Thank you, Stella. Don't worry; I will take care of myself. I am going upstairs for some rest now. Let me know when the meal is ready," Vicky responded to Stella with a blank face before she headed upstairs. As soon as Vicky was nowhere in sight after retreating upstairs, Stella immediately found a quiet place to call Charles. She felt it necessary to report to him what she had found about Vicky.

At that time, Charles had just left the Dream Garden when suddenly he received a phone call from Stella. With a frown etched on his face, he answered, "Stella, what is it?"

"Charles, Vicky went out this morning and has just returned to her room, and I have no idea where she has been to." Stella purposely kept her voice quite a bit lowered to prevent Vicky from eavesdropping on her.

"Good. I've got it. You just keep an eye on her. And if she does anything, don't hesitate to give me or David a call," Charles, once again, requested Stella to keep a close eye on Vicky before he hung up the phone.

"What's the matter, sir?" David noted that the call was from Stella, and he began to grow nervous as he thought it might have something to do with Vicky.

"Pull up the surveillance around the villa. I would like to have a look where she had been to this morning." After giving the instruction, Charles closed his eyes without another word in an attempt to catch some precious moments of rest.

"Of course, sir. Right away."

David did not waste much time. He immediately carried on, pulling the surveillance footage quietly. Careful not to disturb Charles in his rest.

Charles had only opened his eyes when their car arrived at the company. He threw a knowing look at David before he headed upstairs.

David instantly followed behind him. He could sense that Charles was having a short temper today, so he stayed behind without another word. After Charles entered the office, David opted to stay at the door instead.